The 5 Best Bicycle Mods from Brooklyn's 2008 Bike Kill

Bike Kill, an annual event where steampunk fans, hipsters and bicycle gangs converge to show off (and joust with) their best bicycle mods, took place this weekend in Brooklyn, NY. Participants had spent the past months hacking up (killing) bicycles and putting them back together to create the coolest mods we've seen since our 5 favorite bike mods this summer. The big difference? In full Bike Kill tradition, these rides are a lot grimier.

1. Dirt Bike

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You could forgive the looks of confusion and disbelief on the faces of the weekend fixer-uppers who ventured to the Home Depot in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on Saturday. Just over a chain-link fence, between a local public school and the hardware store, hundreds of grimy men, women, and men dressed like women, assembled for Bike Kill VI. The event is a hodgepodge of Halloween-inspired costumery, Sturges Rally-like debauchery and destruction on the scale of the wickedest demolition derby that's ever rolled into town. But when you take away the shocking human behavior, the public nudity, illegal fireworks, rogue fire extinguishers and giant foam phalluses, and whittle Bike Kill down to its core, you have that marvel of welding and frame-building: The Mutant Bicycle.

Leaving Bike Kill in clean clothing is not possible. Staying unsoiled Saturday would have required an not only an umbrella and several feet between you and the rest of the filthy masses in attendance, but also a preternatural sense of where the guys with the fire extinguishers were going to strike next. They caught this unfortunate man while he attempted to ride this double-framed number, another Bike Kill feat that proved nearly impossible.

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2. Tall Chopper

Considering the event's proximity to Halloween, many of the attendees at Bike Kill arrived in costume. Eric Paulson was not among them. When he's not building tall bikes (which he's been doing "like crazy" lately) he works in Long Island as a civil engineer. This chopper is a Trek mountain bike frame with a Mongoose BMX welded on top of it. Paulson's smile belies the fact that the bike in his hands was wrecked during the event. This is a common occurrence at Bike Kill, where any unattended bicycle is basically fair game to anyone to climb onto. Given the particular and tailor-made nature of these mods, others' efforts often end badly.

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3. Fireworks-Ready

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At the conclusion of last year's Bike Kill, Paulie Rauen left in police custody. A longtime member of the Chunk 666 mutant bicycle gang, he'd outfitted his ride (shown here) with fireworks, attracting the unwanted attention of several officers. This year ended on a cheerier note, as Rauen used his robust chopper to transport not only himself but also a friend and his damaged bicycle. "It's so sturdy," he says. "The bike can handle whatever you throw at it. Extra people, bikes, drops, fireworks. It can take it."

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4. Jousting Time

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The joust is undoubtedly the marquee event of Bike Kill. Representatives from the numerous bicycle gangs in attendance mount tall bikes and take up foam-tipped PVC lances. At the sound of horn, hard-core bike modders meet ye olde medieval faire. Injuries during this portion of Bike Kill are common, as the foam padding has a tendency to loose itself from the tip of the lance. This year the competitors had to contend with a stiff wind and intermittent rain; two factors that make guiding a 5ft-tall bicycle while carrying an 8ft-long pike exceedingly difficult.

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5. Swing Bike

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The Madagascar Institute, based in Brooklyn, defines itself as an "art combine" specializing in "large-scale sculptures and rides." Its contribution to the event, a massive two-wheeled contraption with a pair of hanging basket seats, was a crowd favorite. The bike was far from practical--it excels at spinning in one spot--when on display, it attained a sort of celebrity status, attracting numerous hangers-on, literally.

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